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Morbid Saint

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Morbid Saint

Morbid Saint was formed in 1982 in Sheboygan Wisconsin by founding members Jay Visser, Jim Fergades and Mike Chapa. Jay and Mike had played in bands together for some time and met Jim while looking for a new guitarist for their band at the time. They played together playing covers from bands such as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Ozzy etc.The three parted ways for different reasons, but Jay and Mike kept playing together.After about two years had past, Jay and Mike were still jamming togetherwhile Jim was jamming with long time friend and drummer Lance Wolf.The four got together and started jamming in the basement of Jays house and practiced covers from Metallica and other Metal bands of the time.

After about six months, Lance was offered a job drumming in another local band and left the band. After unsuccessfully trying to find a new drum the three kept jamming almost every day without a drummer, which they felt made the three of them very musically tight. In 1984 Jay met a good friends younger brother that played drums and was blown away by his ability, especially since he was only 14 years old. He was the most intensely fast, technical drummer any of us had ever seen and within a month Lee Reynolds was in the band and Morbid Saint was formed. Original line-up: Mike Chapa bass and vocals, Jay Visser guitar, Jim Fergades guitar and Lee Reynolds drums.The four jammed together for about a year playing covers and wrote the first Morbid Saint song “Trashaholic” before being asked to open a show for another local band, this would officially be the first Morbid Saint show. The band started setting up shows around Sheboygan with the help of a friend that was promoting bands at the time. One such show was opening for Milwaukee based metal band Realm in nearby Sheboygan Falls.After the show Realm asked the band if they would be interested in playing in Milwaukee with them in the future, which they eagerly accepted. Morbid Saint continued to play shows around the Sheboygan area, their favorite spots to play being Cecils Palace and Croation Hall. Morbid Saint was known for putting everything into their live shows, trying to make even the smallest shows a big production. At one Croation Hall show the band used what they called “Flashpots” which were basically bombs in a tube.

They only did this at two different shows and then stopped fearing someone was going to get hurt.The band was still playing cover songs but had already written Thrashaholic, Burned at the Stake and Beyond the Gates of Hell. In early 1987 Mike left the band, leaving them in need of a bass player and a singer. During this time \without a singer or bass player, the band began writing more original material. After a few months without a singer and bass player the band met Bob Sinjakovic, a singer from Milwaukee. Combining the music the band had been working on with Bobs lyrics, three new songs were born. Damien, Scars and Crying for Death. The band still needed a bass player, Bob recommended a friend of his from Milwaukee that played bass named Tony Paletti. The band agreed to meet Tony, and as soon as they seen him play he was in the band. Tony was heavily influenced by Iron Maiden and it showed in the way he played. The band only played a few shows over the next year as they prepared to record the music they had been working on for so long. After being introduced to Eric Grief and setting up studio time at Opus Recordings in Gurnee IL. the band was ready to record their first demo.The recording was delayed when Bob left due to conflicts within the band.The band had been long time friends with Pat Lind and even though he was a drummer in another band, he also sang a few songs. Pats voice fit perfectly with the music and became the new singer for Morbid Saint.After finishing work on the last two songs for the demo, Lock Up Your Children and Assassin, the band went into the studio in September of 1988. Recording was done in five days with Eric Grief at Opus. Recording was basically like practice for the band since they had been playing most of the songs almost everyday for the past year.

The demo entitled “Lock Up Your Children” was distributed by the band and sold at shows, only 400 copies were made.